Zhang Lu.
ZHANGLU.NET · BRAND
zhanglu.net mark

One road, one full stop

The zhanglu.net mark. A Z-shaped mountain road with two turning points, and a vermilion full stop dropped at its end. It compresses this site's three things into a single figure: the name contains a road, every step walked is traceable, and wherever it goes the full stop lands there.

Design rationale

① The road in the name — a Z-shaped mountain path

The 路 in "张路" means road, the very word for a road. Drawn out on a map, a switchback mountain road forms exactly a Z-shaped zigzag — and Z is also the initial of "Zhang." One stroke down is both the surname and the given name. The diagonal is a precise 45°, like a zigzag climb between contour lines.

② Turning points as records — traceable

What this site does is "turn complex judgment into a traceable pipeline." Each of the two turning points on the zigzag is pierced with a hole — like waypoints on a roadbook. The straight lines are the walking, the turning points are the judgments; pierced with holes, every step walked can be reviewed. Once scaled down the holes naturally disappear, and the mark reduces to a clean "Z."

③ The vermilion full stop — the dot after "张路."

The site's wordmark is already "张路" plus a vermilion full stop. The mark's endpoint is that very full stop — wherever the road goes, the full stop lands there. It is the only vermilion in the whole figure, and the only circle.

④ And the C-suite seal: a square and a line, a seal and a road

This site's product suite, C-suite, has its own seal mark (a vermilion square framing a dot of ink — the machine orbiting the human). The personal mark is the reverse: an ink line leading a dot of vermilion — the road a person walks out. The same palette, two sides of one thing: the product is a seal pressed down, the person is a road walked out.

Structure

  • Canvas: 120 × 120
  • Three-segment zigzag: stroke-width 10, round caps and joins
  • Diagonal: precise 45° (descends 48 × 48)
  • Turning-point holes: r 3 × 2 (paper color, disappear when scaled down)
  • Full stop: r 7.5, vermilion (the only vermilion, the only circle)
  • Full stop aligns to the last segment's baseline (y = 84)

Variants

Primary
Primary
Light background
Reversed on dark
Reversed on dark
Dark background
Mono ink
Mono · Ink
Black-and-white / grayscale
favicon
Favicon
Browser tab
Horizontal lockup mark
Horizontal lockup · the mark's full stop is the wordmark's full stop, never repeated

Color

This is the site-wide palette (global.css's @theme); the mark introduces no new colors.

Ink
#1a1a1a
Road / body text / every step a person walks
Vermilion
#b14b3a
Full stop / emphasis / site-wide accent
Paper
#fafaf7
Base color / turning-point holes
Paper II
#f3f1ea
Light blocks
Rule
#d9d6cd
Dividers

Usage guidelines

  • Minimum size: mark short edge ≥ 16px (the turning-point holes will naturally disappear, as intended)
  • Clear space: leave at least one full-stop diameter on all sides (about 1/8 of the mark's width)
  • ❌ Do not change the color — the full stop can only be vermilion (mono version excepted)
  • ❌ Do not move or remove the full stop
  • ❌ Do not fill the inside of the Z, do not alter the stroke-width ratio
  • ❌ Do not add drop shadows, gradients, or outline effects
  • ❌ Do not skew or distort
  • ❌ Always use the reversed version on dark backgrounds

Downloads

All are hand-written SVG. See the design doc in the repo at docs/brand/zhanglu-logo.md.

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